Money in the Bank (2019)
Money in the Bank (2019) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on May 19, 2019, at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. It was the tenth event under the Money in the Bank chronology. Twelve matches were contested at the event with one on the pre-show. In the main event, Brock Lesnar, an unannounced entrant, won the Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match while Bayley won the Women's eponymous match. In other prominent matches, Kofi Kingston defeated Kevin Owens to retain the WWE Championship and Seth Rollins defeated AJ Styles to retain the WWE Universal Championship. In her first of two matches, Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women's Championship against Lacey Evans but lost the SmackDown Women's Championship to Charlotte Flair who then lost the title to Bayley, who cashed in her contract after Flair's match, including Rey Mysterio defeated Samoa Joe to capture the WWE United States Championship. Production Background WWE's Money in the Bank pay-per-view event centers around a match of the same name, in which multiple wrestlers use ladders to retrieve a briefcase hanging above the ring. The briefcase contains a contract that guarantees the winner a match for a world championship at any time within the next year. The contracts for 2018 specifically granted the male and female winners a match for the world championship of their respective brand. The 2019 event will include two ladder matches, one for male wrestlers and one for females, each having eight participants, evenly divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands. Male wrestlers compete for a contract to grant them a match for either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's WWE Championship, while female wrestlers compete for a contract to grant them a match for either the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship. Storylines The card is comprised of matches that results from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. At WrestleMania 35, Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair in a winner takes all triple threat match to win both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships. She was then double booked to defend both championships at Money in the Bank. For the Raw Women's Championship, NXT call-up Lacey Evans attacked the double champion on both Raw and SmackDown following WrestleMania. Evans was subsequently drafted to Raw during the Superstar Shake-up and defeated Natalya to earn a Raw Women's Championship match. For the SmackDown Women's Championship, former champion Charlotte Flair took offense that she lost her title despite not being the one who was pinned at WrestleMania. Lynch exclaimed that she would not freely give Flair a rematch and demanded new challengers. Among the named challengers was new SmackDown draftee Bayley. Flair then defeated Bayley to earn a SmackDown Women's Championship match. At WrestleMania 35, Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar to win the Universal Championship. On the April 22 episode of Raw, Chief Operating Officer Triple H scheduled two triple threat matches with the winners facing each other to determine Rollins' first challenger for the title. New Raw draftee AJ Styles defeated fellow draftees Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe in the first triple threat match, while Baron Corbin defeated Drew McIntyre and new draftee The Miz in the second. Styles then defeated Corbin to earn a Universal Championship match against Rollins at Money in the Bank. On the April 16 episode of SmackDown, WWE Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon introduced Elias as "the biggest acquisition in SmackDown history". Both were then interrupted by fellow new draftee Roman Reigns, who attacked Elias and performed a superman punch on Mr. McMahon. The following week, Shane McMahon challenged Reigns to a fight for attacking his father. Reigns came out and was attacked from behind by Elias, who assisted Shane in beating up Reigns. Elias then challenged Reigns to a match at Money in the Bank, and Reigns accepted. During "A Moment of Bliss" on the April 29 episode of Raw, Alexa Bliss revealed Raw's four participants for the men's Money in the Bank ladder match: Braun Strowman, new draftee Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, and Baron Corbin. On SmackDown the next night, SmackDown's four participants were revealed: Ali, new draftee Finn Bálor, Andrade, and Randy Orton. On Raw the following week, Robert Roode (formerly Bobby Roode) had the chance to replace Ricochet in the ladder match if he could defeat Ricochet, but was unsuccessful. Sami Zayn then defeated Strowman in a falls count anywhere match on the May 13 episode of Raw after interference from Corbin and McIntyre, taking Strowman's spot. The four participants from Raw in the women's Money in the Bank ladder match were also revealed by Alexa Bliss during a separate "A Moment of Bliss" segment on the April 29 episode of Raw: Natalya, Dana Brooke, new draftee Naomi, and Bliss herself. SmackDown's four participants were revealed on the following night's episode of SmackDown: Bayley, Mandy Rose, new draftee Ember Moon, and Carmella. On the May 13 episode of Raw, Bliss, who had lost her luggage, was replaced by new draftee Nikki Cross in a fatal four-way match between Raw's four participants, which Cross won. It was then announced that Cross would replace Bliss in the ladder match as Bliss was not medically cleared to compete. At WrestleMania 35, Shane McMahon defeated The Miz in a falls count anywhere match; during the match, Shane attacked Miz's father. Miz was then drafted to Raw during the Superstar Shake-up and attacked Shane as retribution. On the April 29 episode of Raw, during Miz's match against Bobby Lashley, Shane distracted Miz, causing him to lose, leading to a brawl. Later, Miz challenged Shane to a steel cage match at Money in the Bank and Shane accepted. On the April 16 episode of SmackDown, New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were guests on "The KO Show" where host Kevin Owens congratulated Kingston for winning the WWE Championship by defeating Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35. With fellow New Day member Big E out with injury, Owens wanted to join New Day as their third member. Kingston and Woods accepted Owens, who they dubbed "Big O", as an honorary member and the three won a six-man tag team match later that night. The following week, after Rusev attacked Kingston during his match with Shinsuke Nakamura, a brawl broke out also involving Woods and Owens. Owens then turned on Kingston and attacked him and Woods, proclaiming that he wanted the WWE Championship. Kingston then challenged Owens to a match at Money in the Bank with his title on the line and Owens accepted. At WrestleMania 35, Samoa Joe defeated Rey Mysterio in one minute to retain the United States Championship. Both were then drafted to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up, and Mysterio defeated Joe in a non-title rematch on the April 29 episode of Raw. The following week, another title match between the two was scheduled for Money in the Bank. On the April 23 episode of 205 Live, Ariya Daivari defeated Oney Lorcan. General Manager Drake Maverick then scheduled Tony Nese to defend the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Daivari at Money in the Bank. After losing the SmackDown Tag Team Championship to The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy), The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) were drafted to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up. Two weeks later, The Hardys relinquished the title after Jeff suffered a knee injury. On the May 7 episode of SmackDown, The Usos appeared via the wild card rule to challenge Daniel Bryan and Rowan for the vacant title in a losing effort. The following week, a non-title match between the two teams was scheduled for the Money in the Bank pre-show. Aftermath On the following night's Raw, men's Money in the Bank ladder match winner Brock Lesnar along with Paul Heyman opened the show and warned both the Universal Champion Seth Rollins and WWE Champion Kofi Kingston that Lesnar could cash-in on them whenever he wanted. Both Rollins and Kingston, the latter appearing via the wild card rule, wanted Lesnar to cash-in on their respective selves that night. Later, Rollins and Kingston teamed up and defeated Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin. Lesnar then came out and teased cashing in, but decided to postpone his decision to the following week. On the following week's Raw, after Heyman read the contract aloud, Lesnar realized he had until May 19, 2020 to make a decision, thus kept the contract to cash in at a later time. On SmackDown, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods had a welcome back celebration for Big E, returning from his injury. Kevin Owens interrupted but The New Day berated him about losing. Sami Zayn appeared via the wild card rule and Owens stormed off to the back. Zayn later lost to Kingston in a non-title match, after which, Dolph Ziggler made a return from his hiatus and attacked Ziggler, setting up a title match at Super ShowDown. The following week, Kingston and Owens had a non-title rematch that Kingston also won. AJ Styles was interviewed on Raw about his loss to Universal Champion Seth Rollins. He was confident that he could beat Rollins, but said Money in the Bank was not his night. He was then interrupted by Baron Corbin, who took offense that Styles got a title shot over himself. The following week, Styles was scheduled to take part in a four-way match to determine Rollins' challenger at Super ShowDown, but was still ailing from injuries sustained from Money in the Bank and was replaced by Corbin, who attacked Styles while the latter was in a trainer's room. Corbin later won the fatal four-way elimination match to earn the title match. Roman Reigns, appearing on Raw via the wild card rule, was interrupted by Shane McMahon, who said that he was done with The Miz and was now turning his attention to Reigns, bringing up when Reigns performed a superman punch on his dad, Vince McMahon. Reigns said that he was done with Elias and challenged Shane to a match. Shane, joined by Drew McIntyre, accepted Reigns' challenge at Super ShowDown. Miz later appeared and confronted Shane and McIntyre backstage and said that they were not done. McIntyre intervened and challenged Miz to a match that McIntyre won. Miz received a post-match beat down from Shane and McIntyre only for Reigns to make the save. Reigns then had a rematch with Elias on the following night's SmackDown that Reigns also won. After the match, Reigns received a Claymore from McIntyre, who appeared via the wild card rule. Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch appeared on Alexa Bliss' "A Moment of Bliss", co-hosted by Nikki Cross. They were interrupted by WWE Women's Tag Team Champions The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), as well as Lacey Evans, who boasted about causing Lynch to lose the SmackDown Women's Championship. Lynch said that since she lost the SmackDown title, she could deal with Evans full-time on Raw. This lead to a six-woman tag team match which saw Lynch, Cross, and Bliss defeat Evans and The IIconics. On the following night's SmackDown, Lynch teamed with new SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley and defeated the team of Evans and Charlotte Flair. Lynch and Evans appeared via the wild card rule. Samoa Joe commented on losing the United States Championship. He said that he was not angry about the referee's mistake, but that Rey Mysterio should do the right thing and hand him back the championship and set a good example for his son Dominic to follow. The following week, it was revealed that Mysterio suffered a shoulder injury due to Joe's post-match beat down at Money in the Bank and Mysterio would be relinquishing the United States Championship on the next week's Raw. Joe said he would be there to take back his title. Andrade and Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor continued their feud with a title match scheduled for Super ShowDown. On Raw, Sami Zayn was scheduled to face Braun Strowman. Zayn attempted to get help from Bobby Lashley, who was scheduled to face Strowman at Super ShowDown. Lashley, however, refused to help Zayn who would lose to Strowman. Also on Raw, as Lars Sullivan was about to be interviewed in regard to his attack on Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Lince Dorado, and Gran Metalik), he was interrupted by the team. The trio attacked Sullivan, however, Sullivan fended them off. A 3-on-1 handicap match pitting Sullivan against Lucha House Party was scheduled for Super ShowDown. Following their scuffle during the women's ladder match, Carmella had a match against Mandy Rose on the May 28 episode of SmackDown. The match was won by Rose thanks to a distraction from Sonya Deville. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) resumed their rivalry with The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) on Raw, while SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan vowed to become the best WWE tag team of all time. Matches Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Money in the Bank Category:Money in the Bank Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2019 Pay-Per-View Events